Anecdotes

Together with Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Ronald Reagan, helped organize the Actors' Guild in Hollywood.

He met his wife, Pauline Wagner at an RKO studio picnic when a prankster threw a lit firecracker down the boot of her cowgirl costume. Mike grabbed for it to pull it out, but it went off and burned both of them. Thinking he was the culprit, she began to cuff him, while he took off after the prankster, tackling him on the grass and using his street fighter skills to subdue him. Once Pauline knew who was truly to blame, she told Mike to stand aside while she proceeded to administer her own form of justice on the now-regretful mischief-maker.

His mother, who was 6' 1" in height, was active in Democratic ward politics in New York. Alfred E. Smith, later four-time governor of the state, served as his godfather. His mother soon provided him with four younger brothers, whom he led in street fights against rival kid gangs and supervised when he became a mini-tycoon who maintained a series of newspaper stands on each corner of his neighborhood.

Father of Mike Edward Lally.